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Proposed sea plane service from Grand Marais to IR

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:00 am
by fonixmunkee
I'm excited about this proposal:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4 ... sle-royale

Although I think the leading sentence of the article is a little rude to our friends who provide boat service to IR...

Re: Proposed sea plane service from Grand Marais to IR

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:00 pm
by Tom
Interesting. I'm trying to decide who they see as their primary market... once we see ticket prices, that might provide clarity. For hikers (a frugal bunch), if you're going to Windigo, I can't imagine this being as tempting. Rock Harbor, sure; as it would be for the lodge contingent.
I know from both this forum and talking with others, there seems to be a transportation barrier in getting to the locations that can get you to the island... Unless you are in driving distance to a dock or the current Houghton Airport, it's not as easy to plan a trip to the Isle, which seems to start to exclude the folks (or adds significant costs/planning, like if you have to rent a car to only leave it parked for five days) from the further locations.
I don't know how the specifics of being a concessionaire with the NPS works, but I would love to see them offering a service (perhaps not daily, but based on business need or request) from an airport that someone can reasonably fly into from another commercial carrier. However, maybe that's a bit too much gas from say, Duluth/Superior.

Re: Proposed sea plane service from Grand Marais to IR

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 8:30 pm
by Ingo
Tom wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:00 pm.. but I would love to see them offering a service (perhaps not daily, but based on business need or request) from an airport that someone can reasonably fly into from another commercial carrier. However, maybe that's a bit too much gas from say, Duluth/Superior.
Service from Minneapolis would be great ;)! Heck it's usually twice as much to get to Duluth (or Houghton for that matter).

Re: Proposed sea plane service from Grand Marais to IR

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 7:41 am
by Tom
More detail: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHom ... ctId=63524

IRS proposes the following prices for Grand Marais Service
- Grand Marais to Tobin Harbor Round-Trip $380
- Grand Marais to Tobin Harbor One-Way $260
- Grand Marais to Windigo Round-Trip $290
- Grand Marais to Windigo One-Way $200